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Russia's Alexey Sobolev snowboards during the men's slopestyle qualifier at the Sochi Games on Thursday. It isn't visible here, but the athlete competed with his phone number scrawled on his helmet — netting him thousands of texts, many of them inappropriate, he said.

Sobolev competed in slopestyle qualifying on Thursday with his cellphone number written on his helmet. It was his idea of trying to get through what he called the boredom of the athletes' village on the mountain. Sobolev says he has received more than 2,000 texts since then.

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After practice on Friday, he said most of the messages he has received are wishing him well in the Olympics.

"Most of the messages are good luck messages and messages from the girls," Sobolev said. "Some of the messages are not appropriate to read aloud."

Olympic rules prevent Sobolev from competing with his number on his helmet in the finals on Saturday. As far as he's concerned, his mission is already accomplished: "Everyone already knows my number."